A Santa Monica High School graduate was named Tuesday the commander of the next flight in NASA’s ambitious Artemis project aimed at returning astronauts to the moon and ultimately establishing a base there as a stepping stone to Mars.
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, who was born in Kentucky but considers Santa Monica his home, was named commander of the Artemis III mission set to launch from Cape Canaveral next year.
The Artemis III mission, crewed by four astronauts total, will test the rendezvous and docking capabilities of lunar landers being developed by Elon Mujsk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
The mission will build on the Artemis II flight conducted in April, during which four astronauts circled the moon, traveling farther from Earth than any other previous space mission.
“Artemis III will demonstrate the power of American innovation and international partnership as we test complex rendezvous and docking operations and advance the technologies that will one day carry us deeper into the solar system,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement announcing the four crew members of Artemis III.
“This mission will require the most awe-inspiring coordination of heavy-lift rocket launches in history, drawing on the talent and capability of teams across government and the spaceflight community. The Artemis III astronauts, alongside ESA (European Space Agency) and our international partners, and the tens of thousands of the best and brightest across the agency and industry, are ushering in a new Golden Age of exploration carrying forward the hopes and dreams of the next generation just as the Apollo astronauts did for so many of us.”
Bresnik graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1985 and served in the Marine Corps, reaching the rank of colonel. He then went on to earn degrees at The Citadel in South Carolina and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
He is a veteran astronaut, having flown on the space shuttle Atlantis and serving as commander aboard the International Space Station. He has more than 32 hours of spacewalk experience.
His father, Albert, lives in Santa Monica.
Another of the Artemis III crew members announced Tuesday, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Miami.
Rounding out the Artemis III crew are NASA astronaut Andre Douglas and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano.
Under NASA’s current schedule, the Artemis IV mission will launch in early 2028 and mark the return of astronauts to the surface of the moon with the use of a lunar lander being tested on the Artemis III mission. NASA then plans additional missions to the moon roughly once per year.
The Artemis mission ultimately envisions the establishment of a base on the moon that could be used as an alternate launch point for future trips to Mars, which NASA hopes to achieve sometime in the 2030s.
Why no photo of the Bresnik?